As computing devices become more ubiquitous, a greater amount of sensitive information is stored upon, and utilized by, such computing devices. Consequently, users of such computing devices can invest a substantial amount of time and effort into securing such sensitive information. Among mechanisms for securing sensitive information, password-based mechanisms have become pervasive. As will be recognized by those skilled in the art, password-based protection technologies can rely upon encryption technologies to perform their protection. More specifically, password-based protection technologies traditionally encrypt a set of data and provide access to such data only upon the provision of an appropriate password. If an appropriate password is not provided, the data remains in encrypted form and, thereby, protected from unauthorized disclosure.
One technology that takes advantage of the pervasiveness and ease of use of password-based protection is whole volume encryption whereby all, or substantially all, of the data stored on a given volume is encrypted. Consequently, even if a malicious entity were to obtain physical access to the storage media upon which such data was stored, the data of such a volume would, nevertheless, remain protected since such data would have been stored in an encrypted form. As will be known by those skilled in the art, whole volume encryption technology traditionally relies upon one or more layers of keys to perform effective and efficient key management. Thus, for example, a “higher” layer key can be utilized to decrypt a “lower” layer key, and, ultimately, the lowest layer key can be utilized to decrypt the data, as stored on the storage media, itself. As a measure of protection, the decryption of one or more layers of the keys can be tied to the state of the computing device itself, such that, for example, if the storage media were to be removed from a computing device and communicationally coupled to a different computing device, the data could not be decrypted because the state of the computing device, to which the storage media was communicationally coupled, would have changed.
During the operation of a computing device, even a computing device that has been configured for secure operation, there may exist situations or circumstances during which it may be necessary to store sensitive information in an easily accessible form. For example, one or more keys utilized in a whole volume encryption mechanism, such as those keys whose decryption is traditionally tied to the state of the computing device, may need to be stored in an easily accessible form during updates to the computing device that can affect the state of the computing device in a material matter. The subsequent removal of such easily accessible information should ameliorate the potential security issues associated with storing such information in an easily accessible form.
Modern storage media, however, often utilize techniques and technologies which, while marking a particular set of data as deleted, do not actually destroy such data on the storage media itself. For example, modern magnetic-based storage media often comprise such storage capacity that data marked for deletion may not actually be overwritten and, thus unrecoverably destroyed, for a substantial amount of time. In the intervening time, the data can remain accessible via known data recovery mechanisms. In a similar manner, modern storage media utilizing solid state storage technologies often implement wear-leveling techniques. As a result of such techniques, modern solid state-based storage media may not actually overwrite data marked for deletion until a substantial amount of time after the data was supposed to be irretrievably removed. As with magnetic-based storage media, the failure of the solid-state based storage media to properly delete such sensitive information, can result in a substantially weaker security posture.